28 thoughts on “10 Ways to Navigate Turbulence”

Others that I would add are:
– know your people well
– train your people well
– pay attention to what’s going on around you, keep an eye on everything, especially what lies immediately ahead
– step into the current, don’t fight it. Move in the direction of the flow, and use it to your advantage as much as possible.
– applaud and celebrate those people who step up to help “save the day”
– prepare better for the next round

I also stepped back a bit when I saw this one as well. Sometimes there is nothing wrong with the ship guys and what we need to do is throw overboard the “bad” cargo. Organizations are not inherently bad, and it is difficult sometimes to throw people off the bus. How many times have we had turbulence that we could have predicted and resolved earlier had we the stomach to do what needs to be done. Been there and done that and hopefully
have become a better captain because of it.

That statement reminds me of the talk about the banks and auto industry being “too big to fail.” I wonder how things might have turned out if we let them “fail” and reorganize. Sure, there would have been pain in the short-run, but I suspect we would have seen positives over the long run

I appreciate the points suggested to navigate turbulence. I like the point number 5- who is in the center. It has major influence on causing turbulence. Generally we tend to think that it is the leader who is in the center, but it may not be always true. There could be some group of people, some customs, some norms, some cultural practices or people of like interest etc. One important thing to note during respond to turbulence is know the pattern. Pattern of turbulence provide frequency so that you can make out suitable strategy.
Navigating turbulence does not have definite answer. How can leaders navigate turbulence, depends. It depends on the impact. There are turbulence which do not impact but disturb in short term. There are turbulence which actually challenges the leadership capability. Kind and impact of turbulence decides strategy. And overall its impact on the situation or system.

Would add to the negative spin that, failures react, seeking to blame rather than seeking a remedy.

Know that turbulence will occur (could substitute change for turbulence) and with that knowledge, plan for it, identify the extremes of turbulence so that you know the outside parameters, determine the likelihood of the various extremes occurring and then practice responses to see how/if they work. How you practice is how you will do in the real event.

And learn from others experiences. It is up the the leaders to connect those real world learnings to their own shop. We learned very deep lessons from hurricane Sandy and Katrina before. With Sandy, who would have thought that fires would be an issue in hurricane rains and wind, yet we lost hundreds of homes to fire.

Hey Doc I am with you on the “Blame Game.” The thrust of our “lean management program” which we are in the midst of is to create “safe” space, not assign blame but examine it, and not ask who did it but what happened. Creating a blameless culture is difficult to achieve but who is “to blame for that.” :-)

You’re making me think. It seems that turbulence and threats to our progress or existence are best served by getting to the essential stuff. Addressing turbulence involves driving the shades of gray from the black and white. Black and white are the values and reasons we exist – how and why we serve; and the essential skills we apply to get things done – leading, following, working together, executing skillfully. The gray that has to be driven out is the self serving interests and needs for power that emerge in all organizations. These are inevitable and important, but can overwhelm the black and white if they become dominant. They cause turbulence. Focusing on the black and white sets the gray aside and allows “facing into the wind.” Failure happens when the black and white are lost because grays dominate the behavior of people in the organization.
Seems to apply to lots of things today. Good post.

A while back, I put together a Coaching Situational Difficulty Rating form (and did the same thing for the idea of facilitation of a group) using the Whitewater I – VI ratings for rapids, using some of the metaphors about scouting and maneuvering that are required to be successful.

The “i’s” are the really easy ones and the “VI’s” are for experts only, with pretty-much required safety / rescue set-ups and a lot of planning plus skills.

Turbulence can be FUN and interesting — a lot more engaging than simply floating on the lake. But it also needs some skills and preparation to stay right-side-up in all the chaos!

ALL the turbulence can basically be run. But floating over Niagara Falls in a barrel is not the same kind of experience as running the Big Hole at Chrystal or running Lava Falls (both on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon).

Guess it is kind of a decision-making framework. You can find it downloadable on this page:

Great post Dan. Being a lover of the sea no. 8 was my “winner.” “Are you navigating by the stars or controlled by the wind?” How about if I say a little of both. Using the wind strategically can jump start you in the right direction if you know where you are going. Leaders need to be proficient at both I would say. Tactics matter and calm seas and a starry sky can still create opportunity for reflection and preparation. Knowing how to set the sails is usually never learned well during the storm and the truth is there is never a similar Hurricane as Doc pointed out regarding Katrina and Sandy. I am not one to point fingers at anyone lest I poke myself in the nose but there was some time with “calm seas” for better preparations to be made for Sandy. And Doc will know this but someone said “If it doesn’t kill you, it can only make you stronger.” I am a big proponent of that philosophy for sure.